Building CapaCITY/É for sustainable transportation: protocol for an implementation science research program in healthy cities

INTRODUCTION

Improving sustainable transportation options will help cities tackle growing challenges related to population health, congestion, climate change and inequity. Interventions supporting active transportation face many practical and political hurdles. Implementation science aims to understand how interventions or policies arise, how they can be translated to new contexts or scales and who benefits. Sustainable transportation interventions are complex, and existing implementation science frameworks may not be suitable. To apply and adapt implementation science for healthy cities, we have launched our mixed-methods research programme, CapaCITY/É. We aim to understand how, why and for whom sustainable transportation interventions are successful and when they are not.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

Across nine Canadian municipalities and the State of Victoria (Australia), our research will focus on two types of sustainable transportation interventions: all ages and abilities bicycle networks and motor vehicle speed management interventions. We will (1) document the implementation process and outcomes of both types of sustainable transportation interventions; (2) examine equity, health and mobility impacts of these interventions; (3) advance implementation science by developing a novel sustainable transportation implementation science framework and (4) develop tools for scaling up and scaling out sustainable transportation interventions. Training activities will develop interdisciplinary scholars and practitioners able to work at the nexus of academia and sustainable cities.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

This study received approval from the Simon Fraser University Office of Ethics Research (H22-03469). A Knowledge Mobilization Hub will coordinate dissemination of findings via a website; presentations to academic, community organisations and practitioner audiences; and through peer-reviewed articles.

Perturbational phenotyping of human blood cells reveals genetically determined latent traits associated with subsets of common diseases

Although genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have successfully linked genetic risk loci to various disorders, identifying underlying cellular biological mechanisms remains challenging due to the complex nature of common diseases. We established a framework using human peripheral blood cells, physical, chemical and pharmacological perturbations, and flow cytometry-based functional readouts to reveal latent cellular processes and performed GWAS based on these evoked traits in up to 2,600 individuals. We identified 119 genomic loci implicating 96 genes associated with these cellular responses and discovered associations between evoked blood phenotypes and subsets of common diseases. We found a population of pro-inflammatory anti-apoptotic neutrophils prevalent in individuals with specific subsets of cardiometabolic disease. Multigenic models based on this trait predicted the risk of developing chronic kidney disease in type 2 diabetes patients. By expanding the phenotypic space for human genetic studies, we could identify variants associated with large effect response differences, stratify patients and efficiently characterize the underlying biology.

Use of a Collaborative GIS-Based Planning-Support System to Assist in Formulating a Sustainable-Development Scenario for Hervey Bay, Australia

Planning-support systems offer an effective way of integrating social, economic, and environmental datasets, enabling a number of holistic spatial planning scenarios to be generated and evaluated by local planners. With increased acceptance of computer technology as a platform for the development and delivery of professional tools, planning-support systems (PSSs) may well be embraced by practitioners to improve current practices, just as computer-aided design (CAD) has been widely accepted by architects as a useful design and visualisation tool. There is some perceived optimism, (or realism?) that this may be the case sooner rather than later. It is believed that ‘What if?’ is one such PSS which is suitable for enhancing current planning practice. The author provides a technical and experiential examination of an application of the What if? PSS in assisting in the formulation of a sustainable land use strategy for Hervey Bay, Australia, supplementing previous published results. The focus of the research is to examine the underlying model and discuss the collaborative application of the PSS with local planners in a scenario-building exercise. Furthermore, the perceived strengths and weaknesses of the PSS are outlined from the perspective of the urban modeller, together with ex-ante feedback from the local planners on the use of the PSS to formulate urban-growth scenarios. In conclusion, the merits of the use of such a PSS are discussed and some future directions for the development of collaborative spatial decision-support tools are offered.

Evaluation of Data Visualisation Options for Land-Use Policy and Decision Making in Response to Climate Change

Decision makers are facing unprecedented challenges in addressing the likely impacts of climate change on land use. Changes to climate can affect the long-term viability of certain industries in a particular geographical location. Government policies in relation to provision of infrastructure, management of water, and incentives for revegetation need to be planned. Those responsible for key decisions are unlikely to be expert in all aspects of climate change or its implications, and thus require scientific data communicated to them in an easily understood manner with the scope to explore the implications. It is often felt that a range of visualisation techniques, both abstract and realistic, can assist in this communication. However, their effectiveness is seldom evaluated. In this paper we review the literature on processes for the evaluation of visualisation tools and representations. From this review an evaluation framework is developed and applied through an experiment in visualisation of climate change, land suitability, and related data using a variety of tools and representational options to advance our knowledge of which visualisation technique works, when, and why. Our region of interest was the southwestern part of Victoria, Australia. Both regional and local data and their implications were presented to end users through a series of visualisation products. The survey group included policy makers, decision makers, extension staff, and researchers. They explored the products and answered both specific and exploratory questions. At the end of the evaluation session their knowledge and attitudes were compared with those at the commencement and they were also asked to assess the visualisation options subjectively. The findings relate to both the visualisation options themselves and the process of evaluation. The survey group was particularly keen to have access to multiple interactive tools and the ability to see scenarios side-by-side within a deeper informational context. A number of procedural recommendations for further evaluation were developed, including the need for consistency in approach among researchers in order to develop more generalisable findings.